Peacemaker's Journey

1. Peacemaker's Journey Song list The Peacemaker Is Born The Good Message Mother Of Nations Tadodaho - Snakes In His Hair Aiionwatha Creates Wampum Aiionwatha Forgives Planting The Tree Of Peace The Eagle Watches The Great Law Of Peace You Will Have Peace Peace And Power All The Earth Will See End Show

2. “The Great Law of Peace” of the Iroquois Confederacy And how it influenced the Constitution of the United States

3. In 1776, where would you find members of the Iroquois Nation?

5. known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse"

6. Matriarchy • The clans were matrilineal, that is, clan ties were traced through the mother's line and women assumed a position in Iroquois society roughly equal in power to that of the men. • Individual women could hold property including dwellings, horses and farmed land, and their property before marriage stayed in their possession without being mixed with that of their husband's. • The work of a woman's hands was hers to do with as she saw fit. • A husband lived in the longhouse of his wife's family. • A woman choosing to divorce a shiftless or otherwise unsatisfactory husband was able to ask him to leave the dwelling, taking any of his possessions with him.[34] • Women had responsibility for the children of the marriage, and children were educated by members of the mother's family. • If a couple separated, the woman kept the children.[35] • The chief of a clan could be removed at any time by a council of the mothers of that clan, and the chief's sister was responsible for nominating his successor.[35]

7. What is wampum? Purple wampum is made from the growth rings of the quahog shells White wampum is made from the spiraling inner columnela of many whelk species including the Channeled Whelk pictured above.

8. Why is wampum important? • Wampum quickly evolved into a formal currency after European/Native contact throughout the Northeast. • Wampum has a special significance to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. • Archeaological evidence shows that wampum was in use by the Haudenosaunee in the period before the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. • But it was during the founding of the Confederacy that Aiionwatha (Hiawatha) introduced wampum in the way that it is currently being used by the Haudenosaunee. • Wampum is used to signify the importance or the authority of the message associated with it. As such, treaties and other such agreements would have a large amount of wampum that had been loomed into a "belt" for them. • The designs and the colors of the beads used in wampum belts had meaning so the belts themselves were mnemonic devices that could aid the memory about the history, traditions, and laws that the belts had been associated with. • Every Chief and Clan Mother in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy has a string or strings of wampum that serves as a certificate of their office. These along with the authority of the position are passed on to to their successors. • Runners carrying messages would also carry wampum to signify the truth and importance of the message that they carried.

9. Some famous wampum belts The Great Chain, Covenant, or George Washington Belt was the belt George Washington had made and had presented to the Haudenosaunee in 1794 at the Canandaigua Treaty. The belt is six feet long and features human figures and a longhouse. Thirteen human figures symbolize the young and newly formed United States of America. Two figures and the house symbolize the Haudenosaunee - the figures represent the Mohawk (Keepers of the Eastern Door) and the Seneca (Keepers of the Western Door). Each of the figures are linked by a wampum belt to form a chain of friendship which represents the alliance between the United States and the Haudenosaunee confederacy.

10. The Two Row Wampum Treaty, Guswhenta, is the 1613 agreement made between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and the representatives of the Dutch government in what is now New York State. The Haudenosaunee consider this treaty to be the basis of all their subsequent treaties with European and American governments, including the 1794 Canandaigua Treaty. • The belt consists of two rows of purple wampum beads set on a background of white wampum beads. The purple beads signify the course of two vessels - a Haudenosaunee canoe and a non-Native ship that are traveling down the river of life together, side-by-side but never touching with each people in their own boat with their own laws, religion, customs, and sovereignty. Though the customs followed are different, each people are equal. The three white stripes symbolize friendship, peace, and respect between the two nations.

11. More information on wampum and more wampum belt examples and explanations. • http://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum.html

12. This belt is a national belt of the Haudenosaunee. The belt is named after Hiawatha, the Peacemaker's helper. In this belt, it records when 5 nations; the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk, buried their weapons of war to live in peace. Each square represents a nation and the line connects each nation in peace. • The center symbol represents Onondaga. Here the peacemaker planted the Tree of Peace. Under this tree the leaders buried their weapons of war beneath it. Then the Peacemaker set forth a method for the Haudenosaunee to gather as one to think about decisions concerning the Haudenosaunee. The Peacemaker set the council fire at Onondaga. At Onondaga is where the nation leaders will meet. He then used the symbolism of the longhouse in the belt. To the west, he named the Senecas as our Western Doorkeepers and the east the Mohawks the Keepers of the Eastern door. As for the Onondagas, he named them the Firekeepers. They are entrusted ensure that the council fire of the Haudenosaunee continues on.

13. The Great Law of Peace • The five warring nations came together under the guidance of Hiawatha and created a document that is called the Great Law of Peace • Let’s take a look at how the Preamble to the Constitution is similar to the beginning of this Native American document. Use your worksheet here to write your thoughts before we discuss it as a class.

14. Figure 31. On June 11, 1776 while the question of independence was being debated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into the meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There a speech was delivered, in which they were addressed as "Brothers" and told of the delegates' wish that the "friendship" between them would "continue as long as the sun shall shine" and the "waters run." The speech also expressed the hope that the new Americans and the Iroquois act "as one people, and have but one heart."[18] After this speech, an Onondaga chief requested permission to give Hancock an Indian name. The Congress graciously consented, and so the president was renamed "Karanduawn, or the Great Tree." With the Iroquois chiefs inside the halls of Congress on the eve of American Independence, the impact of Iroquois ideas on the founders is unmistakable. History is indebted to Charles Thomson, an adopted Delaware, whose knowledge of and respect for American Indians is reflected in the attention that he gave to this ceremony in the records of the Continental Congress.[19] Artwork by John Kahionhes Fadden. from Exemplar of Liberty, Native America and the Evolution of Democracy, Chp.8, "A New Chapter, Images of native America in the writings of Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine“

15. John Hancock is seated. Thomas Jefferson is presenting the Declaration of Independence. John Adams is standing to Jefferson’s right and Benjamin Franklin is to Jefferson’s left. Roger Sherman is behind Adams and Jefferson.

16. Great Law of Peace and the Constitution • Let’s look at the different pieces of these documents and examine the similarities.

17. Today’s Iroquois Six Nations flag Symbolically, the Mohawk were the guardians of the eastern door, as they were located in the east closest to the Hudson, and the Seneca were the guardians of the western door of the "tribal longhouse", the territory they controlled in New York. The Onondaga, whose homeland was in the center of Haudenosaunee territory, were keepers of the League's (both literal and figurative) central flame. The Oneida and Cayuga were part of the original five nations. The Tuscaroara became the sixth nation in 1722 after moving into the area from North Carolina area.

18. Iroquois today •  According to the Canadian and U.S. census there are 74,518 Iroquois in North America, the majority of whom live north of the border. source: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/#IPi95 • Oneida-born Oscar-nominated actor • Grammy award-winning singer • Skywalkers (and I’m not talking about Luke!)

19. Have you ever seen this guy in films? Graham Greene • Oneida • Born June 22, 1952 Six Nations Reserve, Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada • Nominated for an Oscar for his role in Dances with Wolves • Appears in Spirit Bear: The Simon Jackson Story

20. Joanne Shenandoah Wolf Clan member of the Oneida Nation of the Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy Winner of a Grammy Award and 9 NAMY (Native American Music) Awards The Great Law Of Peace from the album - Peacemaker's Journey

21. Mohawk Steel Workers • For generations, Mohawk and other Native Americans have built America's most famous buildings and bridges, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center. They work the "high steel", a dangerous profession practiced high above the ground. http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/Booming%20Out.pdf http://www.skydancer-documentary.com/stills.html# http://www.nfb.ca/film/high_steel http://www.davidgrantnoble.com/images/mohawks/sky_workers.html (Images 7-10)

22. Mohawk Steelworkers and 9/11 High atop a New York University building one bright September day, Mohawk ironworkers were just setting some steel when the head of the crew heard a big rumble to the north. Suddenly a jet roared overhead, barely 50 feet from the crane they were using to set the steel girders in place. “I looked up and I could see the rivets on the plane, I could read the serial numbers it was so low, and I thought ‘What is he doing going down Broadway?’” recalls the crew’s leader, Dick Oddo. Crew members watched in disbelief as the plane crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center, just 10 blocks away.At first, Oddo says, he thought it was pilot error. He got on his cell phone to report the crash to Mike Swamp, business manager of Ironworkers Local 440, but he began to wonder. Then another jet flew by. “When the plane hit the second tower, I knew it was all planned.”Like Oddo, most of the Mohawk crews working in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, headed immediately to the site of the disaster. Because many of them had worked on the 110-story World Trade Center some three decades earlier, they were familiar with the buildings and hoped they could help people escape faster. Fires were raging in the towers and the ironworkers knew that steel weakens and eventually melts under extreme heat. They helped survivors escape from the threatened buildings, and when the towers came crashing down, they joined in the search for victims. In the months that followed, many Mohawk ironworkers volunteered to help in the cleanup. There was a terrible irony in dismantling what they had helped to erect: Hundreds of Mohawks had worked on the World Trade Center from 1966 to 1974. The last girder was signed by Mohawk ironworkers, in keeping with ironworking tradition. Source: http://www.thehistorychannelclub.com/articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/296/the-mohawks-who-built-manhattan

23. Can you… • Explain what wampum is made from? • Describe two ways that wampum is used? • Show someone where the Iroquois lived in the 1700s? • Tell what the Hiawatha belt refers to? • Compare and contrast the Great Law of Peace and the U.S. Constitution? • Say what Haudenosaunee means?

24. I hope you had fun today! • do da da go hv i (pronounced doe-dah-dah-go-huh-ee) means “till we meet again” in Cherokee • Or if you prefer – • toksaake means "later“ in Lakota – or – • Wanishi meaning “wish you well”. • There is also “Aloha” or we could just say “See you later!”